Secondary links

With February (the month that normally cites the peak of flu cases) ongoing, this year has still not started citing any of the doctors' offices or hospitals across the country speaking upon the spread or urging people to stay cautious or take care of their health etc. But why?

According to the medical professionals, February is considered as the most important month of the year during which health concerns of the doctors and the officials are highest as the month every year witnesses maximum number of Americans coughing, sneezing, aching and feverish with flu as compared to any other month in the year.

But this year, doctor's offices and hospitals have still not started talking about the flu and discussing the spread because statements from the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have cleared that this year's flu season has just begun as the number of the respiratory specimens have just started testing positive against flu.

"This is the latest start to a flu season in the past 29 years", said Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the influenza division at the CDC's Epidemiology and Prevention Branch in a teleconference.

Medical professionals mark a start to the flu season once they start noticing that the number of respiratory specimens testing positive for flu has risen over 10%. This mark usually appears by late December, sometimes as early as October.

But this year's reports have shown that the numbers till February haven't hit the 10% mark. It is only since last week that the experts have counted the affected number to 15%, who all tested positive for flu.

No exact cause in the delay has been known yet but yes, the researchers are still trying to find out some hints (if possible) from few theories that are floating around.